


let me fly

by kalypsobean



Category: Matt Cruse Series - Kenneth Oppel
Genre: Gen, University, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 23:44:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5517539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalypsobean/pseuds/kalypsobean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate at university.  (set after book one in the world where Kate goes to university)</p>
            </blockquote>





	let me fly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ivy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivy/gifts).



> My idea of how hydrium works is based pretty much from Airborn, and this is set kind of just after that, so if there are errors, please blame the writer of the fictional textbook. The science was approved by a Real Life Scientist to whom I am incredibly grateful, but remember, kids, do not try this at home.

>   
>  Mellenium is an element with no electrons and no neutrons. The nucleus contains only smaller subatomic particles with charges balancing to 0 and no greater than 1/4 of a quark, as determined by its creation in a large hadron collider. An unstable isotope which has one proton has been observed in a vacuum, but it is thought to be highly unstable and while it has been known to form underground in high-pressure environments due to volcanic activity, it is considered rare.
> 
> Hydrium is a gas created from the bonding of Mellenium to Hydrogen. While mellenium can bond with any atom that has paired electrons (thus forming a covalent bond with that atom but both the electrons come from the other atom, eg: CM2 is a stable molecule with the 4 electrons forming two bonds with mellenium), mellenium bonding with two hydrogen atoms (MH2) creates a gas very similar to hydrogen but much lighter in terms of atomic weight (mellenium has an approximate atomic weight of 0.00794u). Due to the strength of the bond, the energy released when this gas is fired provides enough energy to fuel he airships, although it is also used for industrial and large scale commercial purposes, such as restaurant kitchens. The name Hydrium comes from the combination of hydrogen and mellenium and it was also the common name for mellenium before it was discovered that mellenium was a separate element and not a third isotope of hydrogen. Hydrium became the fuel of choice as it is lighter than hydrogen gas (H2), and is safer and more efficient than hydrogen for airborne craft, as mellenium is not flammable in its pure form.
> 
> Hydrium may be naturally occurring, and as it is formed in high pressure environments similar to the formation of natural gas formerly used as fuel in homes, it often leaks in areas of highly fertile ground, thus creating the misconception that it smells like mangoes. In fact, the mango smell is added to the hydrium used to fuel airships in order to be able to detect and trace leaks, as hydrium is naturally odorless. This has a minimal impact on fuel efficiency, as the ester is inserted into the fuel capsules in liquid form, which evaporates with the heat that causes the hydrium to break down. The free hydrogen atoms bond to the butric ether and a small amount of water is also formed, requiring that the fuel cells are constantly monitored and maintained.  
>  \-- _A Layman's Guide To Advanced Basic Chemistry v7.6_ , Dawkins and Curie  
> 

Kate lay back on her bed and closed the book with a sigh. It was a source of eternal frustration that she was stuck here, although eternal wasn't quite the right word. It felt like it would be forever, though, with the hours stretching out in that way they do when something is so boring that time itself falls asleep. 

She had explored the stars and discovered species, but to be taken seriously, she had to have her degree in zoology, and to get that, she had to sit through intro-level classes in all the basic disciplines. Her paper on cloud cats did not count as prior learning, and so she was here, with textbooks she wouldn't need after the first year. Being on the ground felt so limiting that not being able to stretch her mind was almost a punishment.

_Focus on the good_ , she told herself. The good was the chance to become a respected zoologist, though whether she would continue to explore and discover new species, or whether she would work with injured cloud cats, she sometimes wasn't sure. She had thought she wanted to explore, to see the world and every living thing in it, but meeting Matt had changed things, as had the discovery of the cloud cats. Suddenly, everything in her grandfather's journal was true, but the cloud cats needed someone to look out for them and make sure that people knew they were there and not to fly into them. And there was Matt. It had initially been beyond her that people like him existed - people whose biggest dream was to float in hydrium, who only looked to survive and scrape to improve their lives as much as they could, but still within the sphere in which they existed. Her dreams had always been bigger than the world, and even though she had been through so much with Matt in just a short time, the idea of staying on the ground, in one place, and limiting her dreams to the size of his felt impossible.

Yet, here she was, earthbound, reading things in books that she had experienced for herself. Hydrium, for one. She had smelled that mango smell in a natural pocket of hydrium; Matt had smelled it first, but she had known it was there. Perhaps there had been a mango tree she had not seen, since things were somewhat tense at the time, or perhaps the textbook was outdated - she didn't know when it had been written, just that it promised to tell her everything she needed to know to pass chemistry and finally move on to zoobiology. 

She reads the paragraphs on hydrium again; the thoughts of Matt are not unwelcome, though she has to push them aside at some point and either sleep or work on her biology project. She hasn't seen him often since he started at the Academy, but the idea that he was going had comforted her; it was selfish of her, but the idea that Matt could accompany her when her classes were over and she could take to the sky again was comforting, even if things didn't last between them. Had she smelled mangos when they were floating in the hydrium pit, Matt's dream coming true even as they held their breath. How would she have known if it smelled?

Perhaps Matt would learn to fly, and they could go back there, just the two of them, and she could check. Without pirates, it might even be relaxing, a place to rest but not feel so walled in. 

She didn't know, but she had to finish her reading and her project before she found out. She had to finish... she dreamed of flying, of creatures in the sky that she would be the only one to see, and of never having to come back down.


End file.
